[beating drums rhythmically] hello. you're watching nhk "newsline." i'm y yoshi ogasawara. we begin with torrential rains in parts of japan. the extreme wet weather has moved into the eastern part of the country after causing widespread damage in the southwestern region of kyushu. more than 55 people have died and over 15 others are missing. the meteorological agency has switched a heavy rain emergency warnrning for gifu and nagano prefectures to a warning. but officials are telling

residents to stay vigilant as the water is still rising in local rivers. some areas have seen averarage raininfall for the entire mononf july i in just six days. in give few prefecture, the swollen river flooded leaving neighborhoods submerged. the gushing water has destroyed parts of a highway along the river. the rain also triggered landslides that swept trees away and smothered houses. a number of homes in the city of takayama were damaged. >> translator: sand and rocks plunged down, jumped the river and slammed into the houses. >> powerful winds pose another problem. some parts of central japan saw roofs blown away by a suspected tornado. roads to several areas have been cut off by flooding and landslides leaving thousands of

people isolated. workers are busy removing the mud and repairing the damage. >> translator: a bridge is being washed away. you can see fragments of trees and grass mangled with the railway bridge. >> a nhk crew captured this scene on the island of kyushu from a helicopter. emergency crews are still trying to g get a full l picture of destruction after days of intense downpours. 57 people have died in the region and authorities say 2 more are without vital signs. rescuers continue to search for survivors. 17 people are missing including some who were driving in the stormy weather and haven't returned. in kumamoto prefecture in kyushu, a british residentt wok

up in the middle of the night to a water loggeged nightmare that was reality. she spoke with nhk world's nochi haruka about staring in the face of the disaster. >> i looked in my kitchen window. there was a fire engine on the other side of the road, and a firefighter waist-deep in the water in the road. and that made me very nervous. >> reporter: hester mullen works as a coordinator for relations at the ashikita town hall. a heavy rain emergency warning was issued in kumamoto prefecture on saturday morning. in just one hour, the downpour dumped more than 120 millimeters on ashikita. >> there came a point where i was looking outside every ten minutes because the water was coming closer to my house. and within tenen minutes, suddenly it had gone from quite far away to a river in front of my house. >> reporter: about two

centimeters of water flooded her house. without waiting for official evacuation orders, mullen evacuated to her neighbor, who had a two-story home. she says this was her first experience evacuating during a natural disaster and that it's opened her eyes to the challenges foreigners in particular face. >> as a foreign resident, you don't always know if you're overreacting. maybe before the disaster there's quite a lot of uncertainty about, is it really that bad? should i really go to a shelter? especially now with covid, you know. you think maybe i should just stay home. so it's important to have somebody who can say no, you should evacuate or you should stay inside or yeah, that you can ask. >> reporter: mullen has spent the last couple days immersed in the muddy and difficult work of cleaning out her house and helping her neighbors. >> i'm trying to keep things o f

the floor as much as possible. just in case. and i now have, you know, places i know i could evacucuate. i'm keeping a very close eye on e forecacast every few h hours, you know, from now on. but i am very hopeful that the worst is past. >> reporter: in her town alone, ten people have died and one person is missing. as someone who speaks japanese, mullen says she was lucky to know what was going on. now she's working on sharing information to other foreign residents through the international community's website to make sure no one is left behind in an emergency. nochi haruka, nhk world. the u.s. envoy in charge of

north korean affairs has expressed hope for progress in the situation on the korean peninsula by year endnd. u.s. deputy secretary of statet ararrived in seoul on tuesday. he met separately with foreign minist minister, vice foreign minister, and seoul's top negotiator for peace on the peninsula. after the meetings, he told reporters that the u.s. is ready to resume dialogue with north korea whenever its leader kim jong-un appoints a negotiator. north korea earlier said it has no intention of having dialogue with washington. dialogue and negotiations are the only way to rovl outstanding issues and that south korea will work closely with japan and other neighboring countries. but diplomatic observers point to a difference between the u.s. and south korean stances toward north korea. the u.s. maintains that

inter-korean cooperation should match progress in the north's denuclearization. that seoul should do whatever it can based on its own initiative regardless of washington's intention. north korea's state run media say kim jong-un visited the mausoleum of kim il-sung on the 26th anniversary of his death. the nation's ruling party newspaper reported on its front page on wednesday that the leader had paid respect to his grandfather at the palace of the sun. a photo at the top of the page shows that far fewer officials accompanied kim jong-un than did so last year. in april the north korea media carried no reports on the leader's visit to the mausoleum for his grandfather's birthday. the event is seen as the

country's biggest national holiday. later in the same month, cnn quoted a u.s. government official as saying that kim jong-un's health was in grave danger after a surgery. china has opened a new national security office in hong kong. this comes after a law took effect last week that beijing sasays will rein in antigovernmt activities in the territory. the office for national security will be temporarily housed in a hotel in a busy commercial district. an opening ceremony y was held wednesday. >> translator: in accordance with the law, the office does not violate the legal rights of individuals or organizations. >> the facility will oversee enforcement of the new law. it has the power under the laws of mainland china to investigate and prosecute crimes involving foreign forces.

local media say it will have a staff of around 300 officials. critics say, however, that the new law undermines the one country/two systems principle and undermines hong kong's rights and freedom. the u.s. government says it will restrict issuing visas to some chinese officials. it says the move is in response to beijing obstructing u.s. citizezens from traveling to tibet. the secretary of state announced the measure in a statement on tuesday. mike pompeo said beijing continues to limit travel by u.s. officials, journalists, and tourists to the tibet autonomous region and other tibetan areas. he added that chinese visitors enjoy much greater access to the united states. he said the restrictions will apply to officials who are substantntially involved in the formulatation or execucution of policies related to access for foreigners to tibetan areas.

the statement also said the u.s. would continue to work to improve humanitarian conditions in tibetan communities within china and abroad. turning back t to japan whe authorities reported wednesday ththat 157 more people have bee infected with the coronavirus. that includes one person in the southwestern prefecture of okinawa which hadn't confirmed any cases in more than two montnths. the minister in charge o of the coronavivirus response says the situation in the country is becoming more serious. >> translator: in a certain percentage of these cases the root of infection is unknown. also the number of older people with the infection i is increasing. we need to deal with this with a sense of crisis. >> nishimura added so far there is no need to declare another state of emergency. 75 of the infections reported on

wednesday are in tokyo. it's the first time in a week the number of daily cases have fallen below a hundred in the capital. an 88-year-old survivor of the hiroshimima atomic bombing says she will keep pushing to ban nuclclear weapons. she gagave an ononline speech o tuesday. she wawas just 13 at the time o the bombing in 1945.5. >> i certainly hope we don't give up,p, we keep pushing. we keep moving forward. >> her comments come on the third anniversary of the adoption of the treaty on the prohibition of nuclelear weapons. the pact needs passed by 50 countries but apparently only 39 have ratified so far. thurlow hopes to keep urging members to ratify y the agreeme. thurlow also criticized the huge sums spent on n the nunuclear a race. shshe suggested it wouldld be br

to use the money on cacauses su as fighting the coronavirus pandemic. >> why we invest billions and trillions ofof dollar to make me advanced, modernized weapons and so on. at's a a simple example we can use. really, our resources should be to enrnrich human lilife, nonot destroy our lives.s. >> the o online event wawas co-sponsored by the ininternational campaigngn to abolish nuclear weaponons, or i-can. and the japanese ngngo. i-can won the 2017 nobel peace prize. u.s. president donald trump has long used social media to deliver his message to americans

and the world. but some of his comments on twitter have landed him in trouble and his relationship with the platforms is growing momo combative. nhk world's esther oh has more. >> reporter: for reporters at nhk's washington burereau, checking president trump's tweets has become a daily routine. so twitter applied get the facts about mail in ballots in regards to the president's tweets that mail-in ballots will be anything less than substantially frfraudulent. trumpp often uses a platform to make official announcements including policy initiatives and cabinet picks. he's amassed more than 82 million followers to date and earned the nickname the twitter president. but many of his tweets are controversial.l. he amplifies conspiracy theories

and unproven scientific claims. medidia fact cheers say trump hass made more ththan 18,000 fa oror misleading statements as president and one-fifth of them have been on twitter. in may, moderators on twitter finally got involved putting warning labels on two of his tweets saying the posts violated its terms of service. trump immediately fired back signing an executive order that target's so-called online censorship being carried out by social media plot forms. the order seeks to change a federal law known as section 230 that has protected the companies from being sued for content their users share. it asksks the federal communications commission to examine removing those protections for companies like twitter. some say the order will have a chilling effect on social media

platforms and infringe on constitutional rights. >> we're here today to defend free speech from one of the gravest dangers it has faced in american history. >> reporter: even staunch republicans have come out against the order. >> good morning. austin peterson here. 9:50 a a.m. disrespected by twitter. donald trump is throwing a tantrum. >> reporter: austin peterson is a conservative radio host. he's a republican and has almost 67,000 followers on twitter. he sees trump'ss order as a for of governmnment interference th runsns against conservative beliefs. >> i it's a actually a violatio freepepeech thahat the presiden is stepping into territory which he's unfamiliar with t to a sm degree. he is very prolific on twitter, but that's a big difference from understanding twitter. >> reporter: due to greater

limits on in-person re-election events, president trump's presence on social media will surely grow. and this ongoing social media feud may lead to unforeseen repercussions. esther oh, nhk world, washington. it's time for a look at the weather with our meteorologist sayaka mori. she explains about the devastating heavy rain that has impacted japan over the past several days. sayaka? >> the main islands of japan have a rainy season in june and july. this year we've got unprecedented amounts of heavy rainfall. this is the number since last weekend. we've got over 1 meter of rainfall in the south of kyushu. that's three times more than the monthly rainfall for july and almost half of the annual rainfall for the area. in parts of the koji prefecture, over 1,000 millimeters.

look at this radar and let's focus on kyushu. a line of heavy rain developed in the south of kyushu on saturday and then it moved up towards the north on monday. and we've got several times of break in heavy rainfall. however, it's raining almost every day. there was a severe thunderstorm that moved through central japan including gifu prefecture wednesday morning. and we've got flooding and landslides out there. the frontal system is now in the south of japan, to the south of japan. but it's starting to move back towards the north, so more rain is possible once again in kyushu as well as central parts of japan. in fact, kyushu might see an additional 400 millimeters of rain. central japan including nagano prefecture could see an additional 300 millimeters of rainfall. dangerous conditions could continue at least into friday and possibly into the weekend. now, winter has arrived in peru.

and very cold weather is gripping parts of the country. take a look at this footage.e. temperatures p plummeted in the puno regioion of peru this weeks cold swept through the area.. ice covered rivers and crops because of the change. some locationsns weree p placed state of emergency as temperatures fell as far as 12 degrees below zero celsius. many living in the region are poor meaning thehey don't't hav adequate shelter and heating. very sad. but it looks like puno at least will see warmer conditions as we go into the latter part of this week. heat will likely build across the southwestern united states as we go into the weekend. 44 in phoenix on wednesday. but it could hit 47 degrees as we go into friday. so watch out for heatstroke. that's it for me. stay safe.

very sad. so watch out for heatstroke. that's all for this hour on nhk "newsline."

i'm yoyoshi ost gar wa in tokyo. do say with us for more. businesses across japan are increasingly falling victim to the coronavirus pandemic. a survey by a research firm found that in june 113 firms collapsed directly as a result of public health crisis. that's the highest monthly number since the pandemic started. in april there were 95 bankruptcies and in may, 87. many of the firms were in the tourism or food industries.

conditions have been particularly tough for smaller firms. businesses not directly affected by the pandemic also failed. the survey found in june the total number of firms that went under with debts at least 10 million yen or $93,000 was 806. that's the highest monthly amount this year. the research firm says the outlook remains bleak for the tourism and food sectors due to the recent rise in infections in tokyo. this is "newsline biz." i'm gene otani. the pandemic has also push eed corporations and other businesses to apply for record amount of bank loans for a third straight month. a report by the bank of japan shows the average amount of loans in june stood at 570 trillion yen or about $5.3 trillion. that's up more than 6% from a year before and the highest since 2000. when comparable day ta became

available. banks have extended to help cash strapped companies. an 8.6% increase in lending. boj officials believe loans have increased not only to large corporations, but also small and mid-sized companies. new figure's from japan's finance ministry are giving a clearer picture how the recent tourism slump has hurt the economy. the travel account's surplus for may was 90% down from the year earlier. the fouourth s straight month is dedeclined. thee travell accouount surplus thee amount f foreign visitors spend in japan minus what japanese travelers spend overseas. the number of foreign travelers in may was 1,700 people down nearly 100% from the same period last year. and japanese firms saw their earnings from their overseas

investments take a hit. the primary income surplus includes dividends and interest from their overseas subsidiaries and found nearly 11%. that's partly because subsidiaries postponed dividends due to poor performance. japan's current account balance which is a measure of trade and investment withh other countrie was in the black, but the surplus fell nearly 28% from a year earlier. japanese government officials studying the coronavirus pandemic are learning some valuable lessons and they are already incorporating them in their economic and fiscal management policies. officials released a draft that they say will put japan on the road to a new normal. they want to reduce the concentration of people and jobs in tokyo and revitalize other regions. the push appears to be based on an acknowledgment of the benefits of remote work practices. ofofficials also note that the

pandemic has hit supply chains for machine components and other items. they willl aim to diversify supply sources so that certain types of goods are not coming mostly from one country. the draft also includes plans to improve pcr and other testing systems for the coronavirus. and a stronger focus on the development of medicines and vaccines. companies are introducing contactless methods to protect employees and customers amid the coronavirus pandemic. this trend is pushing more robot usage worldwide. nhk world reports on japanese firms welcoming virtual employees.

>> reporter: a robot is patrolling the corridors of this construction firm. as security goes, the robot uses a camera. if a s suspicious p personn app the bot will rush to the site. the warning lights will be activated. >> translator: some work simply can't be done from home, so it's important to create a safe and comfortable workplace. >> reporter: the robot is now also equipped with a disinfectant spraying function to sterilize the building. this housing maker u uses an innovative system in its housing showrooms. >> translator: welcome. please follow me. >> reporter: the robot is being remotely operated by a

representative who explains the property's features in realtime. >> translator: the ceilings are higher than average allowing for large windows which invite in the natural light. >> translator: we're able to conduct face-to-face communication just as if we were together in the showroom. >> reporter: with the robots, they don't need to travel between housing showrooms saving time and money. >> translator: reducing operating costs translates into reduced home prices. we're also introducing a new working style. >> reporter: the maker plans to install robots in over 100 sites. and gather up the system to work from home. all of this will be a business model which minimizes close human contact.

nhk world. all right. let's have a look at the markets.

from the "newsline biz" team in tokyo, i'm gene otani. thanks very much for joining us.

melbourne andn australia preparing to go back into lockdown. also a reported closure. the brazilian president downplays covid-19 even after testing popositive for the viru. brazil has the world's second-highest highest number of cases and deaths. the u.s. officially notified the u.n. is leaving the world health organization. this as coronavirus cases their past 3 million.

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